How Blockchain Is Bringing Universities, Industry Together

Blockchain technology has become a very popular topic for college students to study. So it didn’t take long for universities to form alliances with corporate donors to create centers for blockchain study.

The infusion of corporate support gives the participating colleges the capital to rapidly expand blockchain class offerings. In turn, the corporate partner gains access to a wide talent pipeline of blockchain college graduates.

Most centers for study will likely replicate proven models of academic-industry collaboration and design curriculum, data sharing and conferences with a firm focus on the big picture, Eric Ghysels, an economics and finance professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, tells ThirtyK.

University-corporate collaborations have themselves become the subject of academic studies that have parsed best practices and success factors.

The latest example of such a partnership came this week when Columbia University and IBM announced the creation of the Center for Blockchain and Data Transparency. Its stated goals include fostering original research on blockchain security and policy as well as nurturing blockchain-related startups and cementing New York as a pivotal player in the new industry. Funding details were not disclosed.

Long Game

“Everybody in the business agrees that the blockchain is a fundamental shift in how business will operate,” says Ghysels, who rallied support at UNC for the separate University Blockchain Research Initiative announced last month. Supported by a $50 million commitment from blockchain platform Ripple, the initiative includes 17 universities around the world.

“We knew we had to rethink how we approached MBA classes in light of these new developments,” he says. “And we knew that this was a huge opportunity to think about new research. This was a concerted effort on the part of [UNC’s] Kenan-Flagler business school to jumpstart initiatives in this new ecosystem.”